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UPDATED: TELL CONGRESS S.O.S. (SAVE OUR SCHOOLS!)
The future of professional beauty needs your help and they need it NOW, say leaders at the American Association of Cosmetology Schools (AACS). AACS Executive Director Jim Cox says the association is urging the entire industry to contact their U.S. House of Representatives member(s) to support a bipartisan amendment to block the Department of Education’s proposed gainful employment regulation¸ which could be devastating for cosmetology school business and have a negative ripple effect for the entire beauty industry.
July 11, 2011
3 min to read
UPDATE:
There was a strong turnout from the beauty industry over the past few days in support of the amendment.
What happened: Members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted 289 - 136 - 1 to adopt the Kline/Hastings "Gainful Employment" Amendment to H.R. 1—The Full-Year Continuing Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011 Act.
What this means: This would prevent the Department of Education from instituting gainful employment regulations, which would restrict student financing of beauty school education.
What's next: This is part of a much larger budget discussion and there is still discussion in the House of Representatives on final passage. Next, it goes to the Senate.
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The future of professional beauty needs your help and they need it NOW, say leaders at the American Association of Cosmetology Schools (AACS).
AACS Executive Director Jim Cox says the association is urging the entire industry to contact their U.S. House of Representatives member(s) to support a bipartisan amendment that would serve to delay funding for the Department of Education’s proposed gainful employment regulation, which could be devastating for cosmetology schools and have a negative ripple effect for the entire beauty industry. “Passage of this amendment will serve to delay this regulation’s implementation and give us an opportunity to have more time to tell our story to the members of Congress,” Cox says.
AACS has made the process of contacting and communicating with legislators easy to do for stylists and salon owners, providing customized resources, scripts and talking points to guide you.
AACS leadership describes the amendment as critical to "the continued ability of cosmetology schools to educate and train individuals for employment." Cox says beauty professionals and legislators should oppose gainful employment regulation because:
1) The gainful employment regulation is a job killer. It will displace over a hundred thousand individuals from educational programs that are training them for jobs that are available, and in demand, right now. It will also result in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs at schools that are training those individuals.
2) The gainful employment regulation denies choice. The regulation gives Education Department officials the power to decide what programs and schools’ students can attend to pursue their career objectives.
3) The gainful employment regulation fails to take into account true measures of academic success like state licensure.
4) The gainful employment regulation especially hurts minorities.
More details on these and other talking points are included in links below.
Cox says because time is of the essence, asks beauty professionals should IMMEDIATELY CONTACT the U.S. House of Representatives Member(s) who represent their businesses. Stylists or owners who live in different districts than that of their salons should contact both representatives.
HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE
SCRIPT
TALKING POINTS
For more information from AACS on this and other issues relating to cosmetology education, visit beautyschools.org.
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